Teach Us to Pray

As our country becomes more divided, shootings abound, people are dragged off the streets, and more, it’s not uncommon to feel helpless. If we are believers, we’re not.

So, do you pray? How? Are your prayers effective? Can they be more so?

Prayer Techniques

Many of us in the West have been invited to various prayer-training sessions. Theophostic prayer. Release of generational curses. Inner healing. Breathing techniques. Lectio divina. Contemplative prayer. The prayer of faith, or “name it and claim it.”

Some of these techniques have a Scriptural basis, and some are a twisting of the truth. Others help the person praying to relate to the real God, and some boil down to an attempt to manipulate God to do our will. How can we know the difference?

Tim Keller

According to Timothy Keller, “We should do everything possible to behold our God as He is, and prayer will follow.” He continues with advice near and dear to my heart: immerse yourself in Scripture. That is, “Without immersion in God’s words, our prayers may not be merely limited and shallow but also untethered from reality. We may be responding not to the real God, but to what we wish God and life to be like. Indeed, if left to themselves, our hearts will tend to create a God who doesn’t exist.”

We believers would like to encourage and develop biblically faithful teaching and mission. Biblically faithful. We are Bible people. What does the Bible say about prayer? According to Tim Keller, it does not give a technique, but points us to God.

The Bible Way

In Mat 6:9-13, the Lord gives us a model prayer, which is also helpful as a tool against which we can measure our prayers.

Our Father

We start with acknowledging our relationship to God—He’s our Father. We are coming to Someone who loves us so much that He adopted us into His family, at significant cost to Himself. This is an intensely personal relationship that is shared with all Christian believers.

It then follows that we do not need to fear coming to Him any more than we would fear going to a loving Earthly dad—but we also need to watch that we don’t slight our siblings. My Earthly dad would never have stood for that!

Holiness

Next, we state that He is in Heaven and His name should be hallowed. That is, He is holy. It is only logical, then, that we evaluate our prayer requests based on whether the answers we request will hallow His name.

Often, we don’t know what the result of a particular event may be. For example, I would not have thought that losing so much from 2014-2017 would glorify God. He knew it would. Amazingly, it was best for me and those around me, too! 

His Will

Your Kingdom come; Your will be done. Why? Because His Kingdom and will are best for His creatures. He is all-knowing and aware of what is best, even when we are not. So, we pray with that trust: He knows best.

This understanding should result in our preferring not to manipulate Him into doing our will (as if we could), because that would not be best. When I was a child, I thought my mother was very unreasonable for not allowing me to eat all the chocolate I wanted. I could argue her ear off. But, she was right.

Our Needs

Once we’ve established that God is our loving Father, and it’s best if His will is done, we can pray rightly for our needs. But be careful. Paul records that he went without in Phil 4. Jesus says He didn’t have a bed (or a home, presumably) in Mat 8:20 and Luke 9:59.

So, why do we think we should have a vacation home or the latest model car? “Name it and claim it” has caused much damage because it’s simply not consistent with the Bible.  

We can ask, but it is best to do so in the full knowledge that God knows what we need. Personally, I’m delighted that God knows me so well that He knows what I really need—and provides that.

Forgiveness

Of course, our chief need is for forgiveness. A relationship with the Holy God requires and enables us to look honestly at ourselves, see where we fall short, repent, and be forgiven. In doing so, we’ll know that we are no better than those who have harmed us, making it much easier to forgive them. Out of this springs real and effective prayer.

The Lord never tells us to “love ourselves” or to “be self-actualized,” as I heard Christian leaders on the radio claim. Instead, we need humbly and courageously to see ourselves as He does and then move on to realize He can and will use us anyway. I’ve found that it is only possible, honestly, to look at myself from the position of being in Him—otherwise, it’s much too painful. And I rejoice in His mercy.

Protection

Finally, the Lord instructs us to ask for protection from temptation and evil. We live in a fallen world. We live in a confused world, where people think money, power, beauty, and sex bring more fulfillment than living for Jesus. It’s so easy to fall into that trap ourselves. Therefore, prayer to the true God, based on biblical principles, will include a request that He protect us from the place where we live.

The Best Technique

So, what’s the best prayer technique? One that’s based on reading and obeying the Scriptures. That will prevent us from doing as Tim Keller warned, “Without prayer that answers to the God of the Bible, we will only be talking to ourselves.”